BCR Questions

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Platform for hatred

In my childhood long ago, Canadians used ethnic slurs without much thought. My east Vancouver family, not hateful people, disdainfully labelled central and eastern European war refugees as DP's or Bohunks. In those days, a black child was a Pickaninny or a Tar Baby; their parents called Spades, Spearchuckers, Coons, Spooks, Niggers or Porch-Monkeys. The corner store was operated by Chinks, Chinamen or Slant-eyes. Italians were tagged as Wops or Dagos; Mexicans as Wetbacks. Men wearing turbans were Pakis, Towel-Heads or Hindus, all of them. Aboriginal men were Injuns or Redskins; the women Squaws. Light skinned natives were Half-Breeds.

And, of course, there were Hebes, Yids and bloodsucking Christkillers. When father negotiated for a better price on anything, he was trying to "jew-down" the seller.

Progress came slowly and its not achieved universally but today, those expressions are deeply offensive to nearly all of us. Not all, unfortunately. Reprehensible hate-speak is still acceptable to some in our country.

"In the broadcast, Levant accused the Roma of cheating the Canadian refugee system, and stereotyped them as criminals. He said:

" 'These are gypsies, a culture synonymous with swindlers. The phrase gypsy and cheater have been so interchangeable historically that the word has entered the English language as a verb: he gypped me. Well the gypsies have gypped us. Too many have come here as false refugees. And they come here to gyp us again and rob us blind as they have done in Europe for centuries … They’re gypsies. And one of the central characteristics of that culture is that their chief economy is theft and begging.' "

I suspect this is the carefully considered output of a shallow, empty-headed egotist who will do or say aything that draws attention. Levant's hero is probably Ann Coulter, another serial troll whose contributions are calculated to produce outrage and, more importantly, notoriety.

2 comments:

I believe Ezra - childhood friend of Stockwell Day's son - has a job. That's to push the Overton Window as far to the right as possible so Stephen Harper can step in and look "moderate". And Sun News was set up so the Ezras could get "legitimately" paid for this work.

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